House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Tuesday he’s confident Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and other pro-Trump lawmakers will not be launching an “America First Caucus” that promotes nativism and white nationalism.
“There is no caucus that they’ve formed. I think what Marjorie said was a staffer wrote that [caucus platform]. She did, and she said she’s not pursuing that,” Scalise told reporters after a closed-door meeting of House Republicans.
“There is no member of Congress who said they are creating that kind of caucus.”
He added: “Nobody should be promoting an agenda that excludes anybody else.”
It marked the first time Scalise weighed in on the controversy. The No. 2 GOP leader is just the latest in a growing chorus of Republicans to distance themselves from the proposed caucus.
Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), two staunch defenders of of former President Trump, had been discussing the creation of a new caucus, and a draft policy platform began circulating on Capitol Hill late last week that called for the defense of “uniquely Anglo-Saxon political traditions” and infrastructure based in “European architecture.”
Greene has dismissed the seven-page document as a “staff level draft proposal from an outside group” that she had never approved. And CNN reported that she and Gosar have scrapped the launch of the new caucus amid the GOP backlash.
Scalise, whose own career was nearly derailed by a 2014 race controversy, said Tuesday that he subscribes to the vision of America as a diverse melting pot and land of immigrants.
“What makes America great is our diversity, all the people who come from all around the world, legally coming to America to seek the American dream, like my great-grandparents sought when they came from Italy,” Scalise said. “People come, and we’re a great melting pot in America. People of all faiths, of all beliefs know that this is the place, this is the bastion of freedom where anybody can come and if they seek that American dream. It’s there for them today.”
“We all ought to promote that,” he added. “Nobody should be promoting an agenda that excludes anybody else.”
Democrats, meanwhile, are taking every opportunity to highlight the draft agenda of the America First Caucus in an effort to portray the entire GOP as out of touch when it comes to issues of racial justice.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, characterized the group Tuesday as “a Jim Crow, KKK-like caucus” — an idea that he said “should shock the conscience of every American.”
“The model of this country is E pluribus unum: Out of many, we are one. Not out of many Anglo Saxons; not out of many Europeans; not out of many Confederate sympathizers. Out of many, we are one,” he said. “That is what makes America a great country.”
Mike Lillis contributed.